More than 70% of young men in America
are against marriage - in contrast with the over 30% of women who need it.
The men argue that they are no longer needed.
Woman are now so independent that guys no longer feel needed as providers or as
a refuge of strength.
Worse, if the marriage fails, they risk losing a lot
including custody. It doesn’t help that women have made themselves so sexually
available that they don't even need marriage anymore.
Well, it is not my opinion – that was the result
of a survey.
Sadly, most of our social problems trace back to
that … children are increasingly disrespectful and inclined to treat their
family as a T-shirt – great for a bed and food, but then “I’m outa here”.
I am
still on the theme of practical Christianity, so where is my current discussion
headed?
In bible times, a bride would not accept a
proposal without “the paperwork”. A Ketubah or marriage contract was a
prerequisite, and it had to be mutually agreeable. He also had to go and
prepare a home for her before the marriage could be consummated.
Essentially, her view was that without honor
and evidence that he would go the distance, she was not willing to go at all.
She was like the weaver bird, who has to keep remaking his nest until she is
satisfied enough to not tear it apart or kick him out.
Its right too. A woman has to consider her
future children and the vulnerabilities of pregnancy, raising a family and so
on. Why shouldn’t she seek someone able to stand with her in that? I am so
saddened that we now live in such a dishonorable, disposable culture.
I
could go on, but I want to rather look at how Jesus did it.
Okay, His preparatory work was not “paperwork”,
per se, but it had profound legal implications. He went to extraordinary
lengths to establish a sound legal foundation for His church.
I don’t know why we all mystify the cross and
get all touchy-feely about it, without harnessing its power even, when its
power lies in the legal context and the precedents that were set when He
sacrificed His life before the objectively righteous referee of heaven.
He satisfied every legal prescription of the
law of God, down to the letter. He fulfilled every single prophecy. He
satisfied the Roman and Jewish court of His innocence and worthiness for
sacrifice, but in the Wilderness He also convinced His nemesis, Satan.
His Father refused to judge His cross
subjectively, for fear of reducing it all to a sham. He dared not give the
great accuser a single legal angle to exploit.
As a result, He died to become our testator, so
that we could legitimately inherit His estate, then He rose again to become a
coheir of that heritage. In His death He destroyed the power of sin, judged His
enemies and simultaneously redeemed us.
All
He did truly made us His.
Now we are subject to His love and His laws
with no outstanding obligation to our past. He made us His own, firstly by
redeeming us from any other, just as Boaz once did for Ruth in ensuring that
anyone with a prior right to marry her waived that right.
The outworking of that will be an ever-deepening
mystic union with God, just as marriage moves beyond the wedding and decades of
adjustment to become a mystical union.
That will be increasingly spiritual and
decreasingly emotional or physical. However, what made it possible was the very
practical toil of Jesus, who laid His life down for us.
My conclusion: A practical faith is the path to
real spirituality, just as many practical steps lead a marriage to its
pinnacle.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment